carper

Cathy thanks for responding. I would greatly appreciate if you can share the tool and the rationale why your team did not try to implement it.

Kathy thanks I will look at those articles. Would you mind sharing your tool?

I would greatly appreciate if you can fax me the information- 313-993-2988. Thanks

Debra- please fax me the ifo too- fax number is 313- 993-2988- Attention to Teresa. Thanks

Yes please, I would appreciate your sharing the developed criteria that redueced your sitter usage to 30% . Congrats

I just found this thread while searching for a visual aid. Could you send it one more tiime :) Teresa.houston@zep.com

Your statement “Our picking shelves are designed in numerical order…” strikes me as an opportunity.  Is numerical order the best way or could the order be in frequency requested instead?  Maybe items that are most frequently picked could be closer to each other to minimize travel time and interruptions.
Silviu has good suggestions. It’s alw…[Read more]

I work for a Medical Malpractice Insurance carrier and my black belt project relates to our Legal Compliance area.  We have strict guidelines from state Departments of Insurance that we must follow with regards to notifications to our insureds.  My BB project relates to those notifications and meeting all state guidelines for delivery, di…[Read more]

RK,
Is the type of information you are looking for?
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c030224a.asp
http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/ask-01.asp
You just need to browse this site or try the search box in the upper right hand corner.
Teresa

David,
It depends on your process customer returns/complaints. If you are purchasing a product from your subcontractors and reselling it and the only reasons customers would return/compain about the product is due to the subcontractor, then I think it’s fair to ask for 4.19 sigma from your subcontractor.
If customer could complain about other…[Read more]

Riaz:
You ask a big question that is difficult to answer without more information. 
How big is your production area? 
What kind of production issues do you have and has baseline data already been collected on those issues? 
Does your company already have black belts in other areas or would you need to have people trained in the tools? 
A…[Read more]

As a Six Sigma consultant, I would normally have a tendency to be biased on this issue.  But having seen some of the politics involved in big company implementation I must say the article in quality digest has some valid points.
Is Six Sigma effective overall:  YES.  I don’t think you can argue with the results achieved at company after co…[Read more]

David:
The correct equation for Cpk is the same as you had except that the divisor is 3 standard deviations.  Capability indices have been around longer than the “goal” of a “six sigma process”.  With the traditional calculation of Cpk, a “six sigma process” would have a Cpk score of 2.0.  This would allow for a minimum of 6 standard de…[Read more]

At a Cpk value of 2.0 you should only have 3.4 defects per million.  A six sigma process is still a process where you can fit 6 standard deviations between the mean and the nearest spec limit if you were to draw out a normal distribution with specs. That would give you 3.4 defects per million opportunities LONG TERM.  In six sigma language, Cp a…[Read more]

Mathew:
You are correct in stating that the quantitative value of six sigma is determined through tried and true statistical calculations.  To determine a “sigma level” for a process is no more difficult than calculating the z scores for that process.  If you get a Z score of 6, that is, quantitatively at least, defined to be a six sigma p…[Read more]

My company is just starting to use Six Sigma, but I haven’t seen it applied to a software development project yet. If you end up getting any useful insights, please pass them onto me.

Mark,

Don’t despair. What you are experiencing is very commonplace (unfortunately) in the quality profession. Many “charlatants” exist in our field. The best to get to the board to notice that this consultant is not with it is with EVIDENCE. State your case as to why you feel the way you do (show proof from your own experiences with Six Sigma).…[Read more]

Nope, looks like you should go back to square one and re-evaluate. ;->

Hi, Kathy! Welcome to the wonderful world of quality! For six sigma books, I would recommend anything by TOM PYZDEK of Quality America, Tucson AZ. Also, you might to want to check with American Society for Quality’s site (www.asq.org) or Quality Press (qualitypress.asq.org).